April 21, 2013

Fried Bananas

Fried bananas

Banana
is a popular fruit amongst us Indians. It is cheap and yet nutritious and
wholesome, and it is available throughout the year. Bananas are rich in dietary
fiber, magnesium, and potassium. Potassium is good for bone development, making
this an ideal baby food. I must confess I did not know this fact when I started
feeding Devansh bananas. The food chart given by Devansh's pediatrician had
listed banana as one of the ideal first foods and so banana it was when it was
time to start giving Devansh solid food.

When
Devansh was around one year old or so he decided that he doesn't want to eat
mashed bananas any more. I tried giving him bananas cut in small pieces but he
didn't like that either. So I started adding mashed bananas in Pristine 1st
Bites' Wheat & Apple cereal, and
he liked that just fine. So after that I didn't experiment much with any other
recipe using bananas.

Then as I mentioned in my earlier post, Devansh had
lost some weight and I needed to give him food to help him gain weight. Bananas
are great for weight gain but I didn't want to give them to him in readymade
cereal till I was sure his digestive system was back on track. So I started
browsing for recipes and found this fried banana recipe. First time I made it
exactly like it was written—in butter and with cinnamon powder. Devansh didn't
mind eating these fried bananas but can't say he had them with great gusto.
When I tasted it, I somehow didn't like the taste of butter with bananas, maybe
because I used salted butter. My husband doesn't like cinnamon, which Devansh
and I love incidentally, so he suggested next time I use cardamom powder
instead. Next time I made fried bananas using homemade ghee and cardamom
powder. I also topped them with some honey and voila this dish was a hit with
Devansh. :-)

I have labeled this recipe as "Food for eight month old baby" because it uses cardamom powder. You can however choose to start adding cardamom powder in your baby's food earlier if spices were part of your diet while you were breastfeeding. You may want to read the "When Can I Add Herbs and Spices to Baby's Food?" section of this website. Do not add honey if you are making this dish for babies younger than one year old.Ingredients:

Immediately add cardamom powder, stir the bananas a couple of times, and then turn off heat. (Finish steps 2 and 3 within a minute else the bananas will smell quite foul.)

Transfer the fried bananas to a bowl and top them with honey. (Mash the banana pieces if you are planning to feed them to babies who can't chew properly. Also, DO NOT add honey if you're making this dish for younger than one year old babies.)